Kansas coach Bill Self told his big men in the halftime locker room that Cal had outrebounded KU by two in the opening 20 minutes.

Turns out that wasn’t entirely accurate. The Jayhawks actually had outrebounded the Bears, 23-21, in the first half.

“I was looking at him like, ‘Down two? I feel like we out-rebounded them by a lot,’” Marcus said after KU’s 84-69 victory on Tuesday. “At the end of the game, he just joked about it.”

Marcus said he was glad the coach fibbed on the stats to prove a point.

“Yeah, definitely, because when he tells us stuff that’s wrong, and when he tells me I’m not on the boards, I’ve got to get on it,” Marcus said. “I make a drastic effort the next half to get on the rebounds.”

KU’s four big men — Marcus, Markieff Morris, Cole Aldrich and Thomas Robinson — gathered together before the second half, encouraging each other to fight for every rebound.

KU ended up outrebounding Cal, 39-33. The Bears came into Tuesday’s game averaging 7.1 more rebounds than their opponents.

“I think I told them they were getting outrebounded (at half),” Self said with a grin, “but I think we were plus-two, if I’m not mistaken. Yeah, I challenged them. ... We didn’t rebound the ball unbelievable, but we didn’t rebound it poorly, either. I thought we did a decent job on the glass.”

After scoring a career-high 23 points to go with 10 rebounds against Michigan on Saturday, Marcus posted 14 points and seven rebounds Tuesday.

Perhaps more importantly for Marcus, he registered his second straight, 30-plus minute game. He played 31 minutes against Cal after playing 32 against Michigan.

“That does mean a lot. That means that (Coach) trusts me more,” Marcus said. “I feel like he trusts me a lot more to leave me in there for 32 minutes.

“It’s not just this game. He does it all the time. That’s where I’ve got to earn my trust with him, and I feel like during practice and during the beginning of the year, I have earned my trust with him that he can leave me in there.”

Self’s confidence in Marcus was evident Tuesday, as Marcus was subbed out after letting Cal’s Theo Robertson by him a couple times on defense.

The sophomore was subbed back in a few minutes later.

Marcus made the proper defensive adjustments on Robertson in the second half. After scoring 12 before halftime, Robertson mustered just one point on 0-for-4 shooting in the final 20 minutes.

Comments

Marcus has been all over the floor the past two games. I actually think this team showed something last night. That was their first real test. I don't want to count Memphis as it was too early in the season.

Next big test......on the road at Tennessee. KU desparately needs to win that game to show the nation that we truly are the best team. Beat them by 20 in their own house!

Great job Marcus. Bill Self does not recruit kids who he believes cannot contribute and are not tough. You've improved tremendously in both categories since your freshman year. Keep up the dedication and good work.

showing the rest of the country that we are number 1 means little to nothing for me. I'm confident I know more about this team than any of the national pundits and I love our chances in any game. Even if we don't play get we will never be out of the game and will be able to give ourselves a chance to win.

temple scares me more the Tenn for some reason. Probably because I think the SEC is overated and I find it ironic that if you take out Calipari's team the SEC is way worse than conf USA this year.

the big12 is going to be brutal this year. We will be in for a dogfight just about every night, so don't get accustomed to blowing teams out. Winning by a bunch is overated anyway, it teaches you that you can get away with a lower effort level and isn't something we need to be in the habbit of doing. When tournament time comes around then it will be nice to beat teams by 50!

It's alot of fun seeing Marcus and others develop in their game. It's very apparent that Marcus is really going after the boards.

For Christmas, I would like to see the bigs go up strong to the basket - it seems they are a little tentative when they have defenders on them. For me, this was one of the biggest improvements in Sasha Kaun's game - making him a force to reckon with.

BTW - Please change the title of this article - "Lie" is a very strong word, and I don't think that is what Coach Self was doing.

okiedave, I was thinking the same thing. Marcus, great job so far this year, keep it up. I, too, am concerned about Temple, but I worry about all of our games from this point on, but we truly do seem to play to the level of our competition.

I agree--lie is a strong word. How 'bout, just a little white lie," which sounds a tad better.

Man, Timmay97, how can you look past Temple. They beat Villanova comfortably, for Pete's sake. I remember the Jayhawks made a trip to Temple, in a snowstorm, no less, and got thumped. I believe Roy boy was in charge, at the time. Can't look past Temple--they're legit.

You have to hand it to the twins. They really took that loss to Michigan State seriously last year. I loved the article about how they went straight to Andrea Hudy and committed themselve to getting stronger. Not only do they physically seem faster and stronger, but their basketball IQ has dramatically improved. They are making getting their own shots and have shown some nice moves in the low post. Of course, it's also a testament to Danny Manning and Bill Self. Is there a better program for a big man to go to? Guys like Kaun, Jackson, Aldrich and the twins came here with tons of potential but very rough games that needed to be refined and I'll be damned if our staff didn't transform them all into beasts down low.

Man, who is this bill self? Telling T Rob he has a nice body, lying about boards to the Morris twins...

Just kidding. I love me some HCBS.

The Super Morris Bros have been my favorite players to watch this year. Which is saying a lot considering Sherron is doing what he does best, Cole, even with bronchitis, is a beast, and Tyshawn has been regularly putting up ankle-breaking crossover highlights. Oh, and can't forget X.

Love the Twin Towers and glad they are at KU. Have to admit that Marcus Morris is my favorite Jayhawk. Last year when they got their jersey numbers I was beside myself. My twin brother and I grew up practically on KU's campus and spent most of our free time as kids training to be Jayhawks. We moved to the East Coast but never lost our passion for KU and when MM and MM became Hawks and their numbers were 21 and 22 that was something. My identical twin was born on the 21st of Feb and I was born on the 22nd of Feb.

More importantly then the numbers is the fact that in the last five seasons we have had three sets of brothers play at KU. Hope this trend continues. Merry Christmas.

Actually, I hope we "sink" to number two before we play Texas just to take the chip and put it on our shoulders instead of theirs. I don't want to lose, but I think it would be great to go into that game as the number two team and come away as number one.